Chapter 2106
The older one is in the arena, the less courageous he becomes. Haihan has accumulated rich practical experience in overseas campaigns over the years, but this did not make the military generals take it lightly in the face of another upcoming combat mission, even if the opponent's paper strength this time seems to be completely different from our own. On a higher level, Qian Tiandun and others who are responsible for commanding this operation do not dare to be careless at all. They are still working hard to improve the combat plan and try their best to avoid possible variables during the operation.
But there will still be some signs before the war begins, gradually emerging due to Haihan's military mobilization and material procurement. Even though there is no very precise news on the market, businessmen are very keen on seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages. Starting from March, the number of merchant ships heading to Japan from the Ming Dynasty has been gradually decreasing.
Especially in Zhejiang and Fujian, two areas with relatively large trade volume with Japan, the reaction of businessmen was even more significant. Well-informed large businessmen quietly canceled their scheduled shipping arrangements to Japan, while ordinary businessmen without inside information also Everyone is aware that there seems to be some potential risk in the trade route to Japan. Except for a few adventurers who want to seize this opportunity to make a fortune, most businessmen will still follow the principle of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages. Give up going to Japan for now.
As for the Netherlands and Portugal, which had already received Haihan's warning before, they were naturally even less likely to turn a deaf ear to Haihan's warning. They had already quietly notified their businessmen to cancel their recent itineraries in Japan to avoid being exposed to Haihan's next trip. accidentally injured during military operations.
So although Haihan's military and intelligence agencies have tried to do a lot to prevent military information from leaking, there will still be a lot of information that slowly spreads through various channels. Of course, during this period, some Japanese businessmen who visited Daming Port got some vague news. Most of the businessmen who were able to leave Japan to conduct overseas trading activities during this period had official backgrounds, so it was still difficult to avoid rumors here. It spread back to Japan during this period.
As for the Eighteen Shiba Yu Party who were hiding in the Hirado Domain, they probably got the news earlier, and the news was sent back to far more locations than Sun Feizhou in Ningbo City. Therefore, before the official launch of the Haihan Army, Ping Hu Fan has actually received some bad rumors.
However, the Matsuura clan, the lord of the Hirado clan, believes that the situation should not be as bad as the rumors. The Kaihan Kingdom does not seem to have sufficient reasons to launch a cross-sea war. Even if there is such an intention, it is unlikely to launch action so soon. After all, in their understanding, it took Toyotomi Hideyoshi a full year to complete the preparations for his attack on North Korea. Although they heard that the Haihan Army was very powerful, it was absolutely impossible to attack on the spur of the moment. This was a cross-sea Fighting, and Haihan Kingdom is far away from Japan, how can we just say war?
The Matsuura family's understanding is of course very one-sided. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched the war in 1592, he mobilized a total of 300,000 troops, and the First Army Corps alone, which served as the vanguard, had more than 18,000 troops. With such a scale of dispatching troops, the preparations required are naturally very complicated. At that time, not only did every daimyo have to be drafted into the army, but the daimyo who lived near the sea had to be responsible for building warships and recruiting sailors. Completing the coordination of materials and personnel was a big project that could not be completed in a short period of time. At that time, it took almost the entire country of Japan, and it took a year to send troops from Tsushima Island to land in North Korea.
The scale of Haihan's troop dispatch was not that large at all. The total number of troops from the north and south was less than 10,000 people. In addition, the preparations for war were more efficient. Compared with the war presided over by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, it was indeed easier to complete the deployment of personnel and materials. Rally.
As for Haihan Kingdom, it is indeed very far away from Japan. However, Japan is closed to the outside world and does not know much about the existence of overseas colonies. It also does not know how strong the military forces deployed by Haihan overseas are. Therefore, it will The situation led to some misjudgments, and it was believed that Haihan was sending troops from the South China Sea. Naturally, it would be unimaginably difficult to send troops to Japan.
Of course, the Hirado Domain was not without discerning people. As a retainer of the Matsuura clan, the Tagawa clan believed that Kaihan was not bluffing, but was really planning to take certain military measures against the Hirado Domain.
This view of course comes from the Eighteen Shiba Yu Party members who serve the Tagawa clan. These people knew very well what terrible military strength Haihan possessed. Back then, Shibazhi had underestimated Haihan's strength and did not expect that Haihan would send troops to Fujian to attack Penghu. As a result, they were not prepared enough for the battle and quickly fell short in the decisive battle. Defeated.
They didn't want such a mistake to happen again, so they took some rumors they had received recently very seriously. After analyzing it, they suggested that the head of the Tagawa family start preparing for war immediately.
The main basis for making this judgment still comes from the layout of the Tagawa family on the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty. Numerous secret strongholds have experienced incidents one after another in recent months. Either they were arrested by the local government on various charges and their homes were ransacked, or they disappeared from time without a trace. In the end, the news was sent back from Ningbo through flying pigeons. , only then did I know that I had followed the clues and found the Japanese side.
With Haihan's style of doing things, at this level, he shouldn't sit back and watch them hide in Japan and quietly develop. It's only a matter of time before they take action. Since there are already some signs in Zhejiang before the Haihan Army sets off for the expedition, it is probably a matter of time before the war breaks out.
Of course, these people also know that their own side does not yet have sufficient combat effectiveness, and they must try to avoid a head-on confrontation with the Haihan Army, so the strategy for responding to the battle must still be based on harassment. The most important thing is to leave a way out and escape from Haihan's attack range as soon as possible once the situation worsens. Japan is so big, they should be able to find other places to stay.
There is another response strategy, which is to immediately ask for help from the shogunate, who will organize reinforcements and wait for Haihan to attack. However, this plan has too many restrictions, and the Hirado clan has not been popular with the shogunate in recent years. Such a request for help may be met with disappointment. Instead, it will expose its shortcomings to the shogunate, allowing the shogunate to naturally Take away the current foreign trade privileges of Hirado Port. It is not advisable to initiate such a response plan unless absolutely necessary.
Therefore, in the end, the advice given to the Tagawa clan by the Eighteen Shimo Party members was to be prepared for both sides. While preparing for war, they should also be prepared for a retreat. Once the war goes unfavorably, they should get out as soon as possible.
Because they provided a large amount of funds and military technology to the Tagawa clan, they helped the Tagawa clan become a prominent figure in the Hirado clan, and there was even a faint tendency to replace the feudal lord Matsuura clan. Therefore, the Eighteen Shiba Yu Party has a very strong position in the Tagawa clan. influence, and most of these suggestions have been adopted. However, when the Tagawa family reported it to the feudal lord, the response they received was not ideal, and there were obvious differences of opinion between the master and the servant. This cannot entirely be blamed on Matsuura's short-sightedness. Comprehensive preparations for war will mean huge military expenditures, and will definitely affect the current trade environment of Hirado Port. However, there is currently no concrete evidence to prove that Haihan is about to launch an attack on Hirado in the near future. The so-called warning message may be just a false alarm, and half-hearted preparations may be a waste of money.
If we have to ask the shogunate for help for this, it will put the Hirado clan in a passive position in the game with the shogunate. Even if the shogunate is willing to organize troops to assist the Hirado clan, it will definitely be at the expense of the Matsuura clan agreeing to a series of harsh conditions, and it is even possible that the foreign trade qualification of Hirado Port will be taken away by the shogunate. If such a consequence occurs, it may be more difficult for the Matsuura family to accept than the Haihan people knocking on their door.
Although the Matsuura clan and the Tagawa clan are both in the same camp, due to the existence of the Eighteen Shiba Party, they actually have different starting points of interest, and differences of opinion inevitably arise when considering the current situation. After many negotiations with the feudal lord, the Tagawa clan finally lost patience.
In the Tagawa family house next to Hirado Castle, an old man sat in the north with his eyes closed, and next to him was a young man with a calm face. In front of them, there were more than ten people kneeling neatly on the floor, all of them They all looked at the old man with his eyes closed, as if waiting for him to speak.
After a long time, the old man finally opened his eyes. Although his eyes were a little cloudy, it did not affect him in expressing his attitude clearly: "As a feudal lord, I, Tagawasuke, should consider the people of the Hirado Domain. Now the feudal lord has put the people in his care." Being in a dangerous place and not paying enough attention to the war that is about to break out, I should stand up and do something for the people.”
The old man who spoke was the current head of the Tagawa clan, Tagawa Suke, and the young man sitting next to him was the designated successor, Tagawa Shichizaemon.
Of course, Tagawa Nanzaemon was not his heir, but the second son of Zheng Zhilong. After being adopted to the Tagawa family, he gradually gained the qualification to inherit the Tagawa family. As for Tagawa Shichizaemon being able to sit here, in addition to the fact that the Tagawa family is the natal family of his mother, Tagawa Matsu, there is also a very important reason, which is the support provided by the Eighteen Shiba Yu Party to Zheng Zhilong, the youngest son.
The people currently kneeling in front of Tagawa Suke are basically the current capable men of the Tagawa clan, but not all of them are surnamed Tagawa. Two-thirds of them are not Japanese at all, but come from the Daming River. Han people from , Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and other places. These Han people have a common identity, that is, they have served the Shibazhi group in the past, and some of them are even close confidants of Zheng Zhilong.
These people were all leaders of a certain level at the beginning, and were in charge of the wealth, connections, technology, armed forces, etc. left by Shiba Zhi. However, because all the big bosses of Shiba Zhi were gone, they could not rely on their own resources. His strength made a comeback, and he might be hunted by his enemies when he was living abroad, so he hid in the Hirado Domain, serving Tagawa Shichizaemon as the leader, and used all the resources at his disposal to support and strengthen the Tagawa clan.
Although Tagawa Nanzaemon is no longer Zheng, these people don't care. On the one hand, they need such a spiritual symbol to integrate the remaining power of Shiba Shiba so that everyone can exert force in one direction; On the other hand, they believe that Zheng Zhilong's bloodline is just one. When Tagawa Nanzaemon reaches adulthood, he will be able to stand alone without having to rely on others. At that time, it will be feasible to persuade him to change his surname back to "Zheng".
Japan in this era has no taboos about things like subordinates overcoming superiors, so these people have already been planning to use the resources left by Shiba Shiba to support the Tagawa clan, and let the Tagawa clan replace the weak and incompetent Matsuura clan at the right time. Seize the Hirado Domain as your own. As for Tagawa Suke, he had no heirs, only Tagawa Shichizaemon, his adopted son from Zheng Zhilong, would inherit all the family property. After such operations, it will only take a few years for the Hirado clan to change its surname to "Zheng", and Shiba Shiba's comeback is expected to be realized.
By then, the many secret strongholds they have set up along the coast of the Ming Dynasty will be able to mobilize thousands of armed personnel. There are also many allies at home and abroad who should have considerable strength after several years of operation. If everyone joins forces to deal with Haihan, they should be able to fight. Revenge for the relatives and friends who died under the gunfire of the Haihan Army may be realized in their lifetime.
Now that Tagawasuke is getting older, it is not surprising that in a few years Tagawa Shichizaemon will be able to successfully take over the Tagawa clan after he reaches adulthood. At that time, whether he launches an armed coup or uses a combination of soft and hard tactics to force the Matsuura clan to abdicate, he can win the Hirado domain. There shouldn’t be much difficulty in ruling the country. But Kaihan was no longer willing to leave them so much time to develop slowly, and the Matsuura clan was unwilling to prepare for war according to Tagawasuke's suggestions. If they wanted to make full use of the resources of the Hirado Domain to resist Kaihan's military attack, then We must seize power from the Matsuura clan.
Although the Tagawa clan's influence in the Hirado clan is now very strong, the nominal lord of the clan is still the Matsuura clan, and it is unlikely that the Matsuura clan will cooperate with them in handing over their power, so they introduced Tagawa to the clan. Suggestions were made to complete the power seizure as soon as possible and integrate the forces of the Hirado clan in order to try their best to resist the military attack that Kaihan might launch within the year.
Tagawa Suke didn't know exactly when Haihan would launch his attack, but the situation reported by his subordinates did give him a very dangerous smell. According to his subordinates, if he could mobilize the power of the entire Hirado clan, he might be able to fight Kaihan, otherwise he would have to wash his neck and wait for death when the opponent comes knocking. For the current plan, we can only use unconventional methods to prepare for war and strive for a chance to defeat our opponents.
Of course, in addition to this, there was another reason that made him excited, that is, to become the lord of the Hirado clan during his lifetime. At least in the genealogy passed down to later generations, his identity as Tagawasuke was the lord of the Hirado clan in Hizen Province, Japan, rather than the lord's number one retainer. Although the difference is only a few words, it means that he is the first person to create a glorious history for the Tagawa clan, and will be praised and commemorated by future generations thousands of years later.
(End of chapter)